Uber expands women-only ride feature to Pittsburgh
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Uber is launching a new feature in Pittsburgh to give women more control over how they ride and drive, the rideshare company said Wednesday.
Why it matters: Safety and comfort have long topped women's concerns with rideshare apps — a focus that sharpened in Pittsburgh after the 2022 murder of Uber driver Christina Spicuzza.
Catch up quick: Uber launched its "Women Preferences" pilot in July in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit. This week, the company said it's expanding to 26 additional cities, including Pittsburgh, and making it available to teen riders for the first time.
- The feature is designed to allow riders and drivers who are not men the option to be matched with women for trips.
How it works: Women riders will be able to choose "women drivers" when requesting a ride and set a permanent preference for women drivers in their account settings.
- Women drivers will be able to turn on a feature that allows them to receive requests only from women, even during high-demand hours.
- The feature is also open to nonbinary people, but the company says users' gender must be set to "woman" in the Uber app or the Driver app.
Flashback: Uber first introduced a version of this feature in Saudi Arabia in 2019, shortly after women gained the legal right to drive, Axios' Kelly Tyko reports.
- Uber's move mirrors a similar offering by Lyft, which took its Women+ Connect program nationwide last year. Lyft's program lets women and nonbinary riders and drivers opt in to being paired together.
Zoom out: Women drivers make up about one in five Uber drivers in the U.S.
- There's a "fallback option" for riders who don't want to wait, or if the wait is too long.
By the numbers: Uber cited 2,717 cases of sexual assault and misconduct from 2021-2022 in its latest U.S. safety report, published in August 2024.
Friction point: The feature has sparked backlash from conservative groups and a class-action lawsuit by male drivers in California who say it discriminates against men and limits their earning opportunities, per Time.
What's next: Uber says it expects to take the program nationwide soon.